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 Rated: PG-13
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Rachel Weisz, Ellen Burstyn
Directed by: Darren Aronofsky
Synopsis: Yesterday, today, tomorrow. Past, present, future. Through time and
space, one man embarks on a bold 1000-year odyssey to defeat
humankind's most indomitable foe: Death. Hugh Jackman plays that man,
devoted to one woman (Rachel Weisz) and determined to protect her from
forces that threaten her existence. His quest leads him to a Tree of
Life...and to an adventure into eternity.
Or not - read the critique to find out the real truth behind this movie...
DVD Features:
- Inside the Fountain: Death and Rebirth, includes six featurettes about the ideas and filmmaking for this production.
- Theatrical Trailer
Critique:
This is not your average, straight-forward film. In fact, in the beginning - if you aren't paying very close attention - you might get a little frustrated because the story is hard to follow (of course that tends to happen when there is no apparent sequential order - but there really is).
Slowly, as the story progresses, things start to take shapemake sense. The viewer (hopefully) then realizes the events are all taking place at the same time. One realitydifferent levels of awarenessall within one man at the same time. It is not about the present, the past or the future as so many have portrayed it to be. It is not multiple stories as some might lead you to believe. That is not what this film is about at all. There in-lies the problem with the audience and critics alike - the movie's story was misrepresented in its synopsis, and expectations were made by all for a film that never existed.
The idea behind the story is a grand oneand really quite simple. So simple in fact, many people may walk away just not getting it. It is about one man and one woman. Both love one another very much.
The central life-line of this film revolves around scientist Tommy Creo (Jackman) and his wife Izzi (Weisz), a writer dying from a brain tumor. Tommy wantsNEEDSto save his wife.
He tries to do this by feverishly experimenting with various possible cures on lab monkeys. Izzi has already accepted her fate; however, and has written one final bookall complete except the last chapter. She wants Tommy to read it and write the last chapter.
All throughout the movie, excerpts from the book Izzi has written spring to life through Tommy's dreams as he reads though her manuscript. He dreams of these words, materializing them into his own subconscious, not realizing that Izzi has in fact written this all-but-complete book to help him deal with her impending death. He must write the last chapter once she is gone once he moves onthat is her intention.
This life-changing journey of Tommy also brings the audience through a spiritual transcendence. It is not so much that this third character (also Tom) is in a "space ship" traveling towards a gateway to the afterlife, but more a symbolic painting of the character's own inner spirit as it passes through various levels of denial, resistance and finally acceptance and rebirth through a blinding grief and refusal to let go of his dying wife. It is his soul, not a space man. This portrayal is merely the vessel used to illustrate his spiritual transitions visually for those watching. It is not a separate story any more than the subconscious materialization is from the book he reads written by Izzi.
Tommy experiences all of these plotted channels throughout his progression from total darkness in spirit to a healing light of realization. We see him fight in the physical world to save Izzi's life, through his wife's last breaths of imagination and suggestion to help him move on, and down deep into his own spacial soul as it rises above the devastation of his lost love.
Put simply, this is a movie, beautifully and poetically acted and portrayed, about a man's journey through the turbulent stages of dealing with the loss of his wife, the inability to do anything about it, and the final acceptance of her passing. "Death is the path to awe."
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